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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 2: Focus Session: Physics of Behavior (joint session SOE/DY)

SOE 2.6: Vortrag

Montag, 9. März 2026, 11:15–11:30, GÖR/0226

A reversal in agent preference reveals partial segregation in the Schelling model — •Maksim Prusakov and Dirk Brockmann — Center Synergy of Systems, TUD Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany

The Schelling model is one of the most famous and seminal models used to describe spatial segregation in social systems. We introduce a small modification to the basic rules of the model: instead of avoiding locations with too many neighbors of a different type, agents now seek places with a high proportion of same-type neighbors. Although this change may seem minor, it leads to qualitatively different behavior. For certain parameter values the system enters an unexpected and new partial-segregation phase, where macroscopically stable segregated clusters coexist with mixed, dynamically active regions.

We construct the phase diagram across tolerance and density values and characterize all macroscopic regimes of the model. The partial-segregation phase emerges robustly across different neighborhood sizes, lattice geometries, and numbers of agent types, which suggests that this behavior follows from the modified preference rule itself rather than from microscopic implementation details. To complement these results, we develop a theoretical framework that describes the stability conditions of the observed phases, with particular attention to the mechanisms that sustain partial segregation. Ultimately, our findings show that even a minor change in the type of local preference can generate fundamentally new collective behavior within Schelling-type models.

Keywords: Schelling model; segregation dynamics; partial segregation; agent-based modelling